“You’re late, Miss Nott,” Zabini hisses as the door to our Potions classroom opens. Without looking up, he indicates to our table. “Sit down, Miss Nott and try not to disrupt our lesson further.” I turn to look at Nott who seems to think that sitting with us is amusing because she gives short, yet oddly graceful laugh before taking the seat between Al and Rose where Max normally sits and pulls out her book.

No one speaks as they gather their ingredients and begin making their potion. Rose looks furious and I remember that she hates Nott more than she hates the average Slytherin; Al on the other hand, looks blank, just staring and methodically adding his ingredients, hardly paying any attention to what he is doing; Nott’s potion is the only one on our table that bears any resemblance to the example Zabini showed us earlier. I let my eyes drift across the classroom – I don’t plan on taking Potions NEWTs so it doesn’t matter too much if I fail – and they come to rest on a table on the other side of the room to us. It takes me a few moments to realise who is sitting at the table. He tilts his head slightly and shoots me a knowing smile. I glare at him. Malfoy.

A crash from behind me pulls my attention away from Malfoy. Davis appears to have knocked over his cauldron. Zabini gives him a detention before coming over to our table

“Well Miss Nott, I am no longer sure if your potion is so good after all,” he smirks. “I mean in contrast to whatever they are supposed to be, anything would look impressive.” I sigh and look at my potion – he is right, it is a disaster. “Weasley I suggest you stop with whatever atrocity you are attempting to make before you kill us all.” I turn to look at Rose’s potion and have to choke back a giggle: it is even worse than mine. Rose looks like she is about to spit fire. Al is not paying any attention. Nott looks smug: typical Slytherin.

After setting us an essay on the uses of Living Death, Zabini dismisses us. Nott is first out the door and manages it without running. I turn to follow Rose, who is fighting her way through the crowd, when a hand grabs my wrist and I am pulled back into alcove, hidden by a huge tapestry. Before I can protest, my lips are stopped with a kiss. I am too dazed to think straight and fine myself kissing back…

I can feel my breath getting shorter and my pulse quickening. His hands are on my body, gently kneading into my stomach, I entwine my fingers in his hair, dragging him closer.

“Roxanne,” he breathes against my neck.

Then it snaps: Malfoy.

My body freezes. It takes a moment for him to realise. He stops. I untangle my fingers from his hair.

“Get off,” I am so angry; my voice is barely a whisper.

“Why, Roxanne?” his mouth is pressed against my ear, I can feel his breath stinging the sensitive skin beneath my lobe. His body is still pressed against mine, his hands still on my waist.

“I said… Get off.” Yanking my arms away from his embrace, I try to shove him away. I do not succeed. Instead, he now has my arms, pinned by the wrists, against the wall by my head. He is still leaning on me, his breathing tickling my face.

“And I asked why…” If he does not let me go, I will scream. “I know you want me, Roxanne. You don’t have to hide it. It’s obvious.” His voice isn’t threatening but I can sense a danger in his words, a danger in the way they make my stomach twist like a pool of vile snakes. “I know why you didn’t catch the Snitch.”

I gasp. He cannot know.

“I know how even the speed of one of the best brooms available was not enough to make you fly passed me without noticing. I know that every time you see a flash of blonde hair, you think of me. I know these things, Roxanne. I know.” My heart is pounding so hard against my chest; I suspect he can hear it. Every particle of my body is screaming at me to get away, to curse him into the in-between, to smash his face against the cold, stone wall… He pauses and places a trail of kisses – each one burning a hole in my flesh – down my neck, from my jawline to my collar bone. “How do I know these things…? Because they are the same for me, Roxanne… Every time I turn a corner or enter a corridor, my eyes search you out; they gravitated towards you like a compass needle to the North. I don’t know why, or even how… They just do. My whole body is trained on you – you move, I move. You cannot go on denying me, Roxanne, when I know you feel the same… And believe me: I know it’s scary… I am scared as fuck by the way you make me feel… But sometimes, we just have to face our fears… And I want to face mine with you.” His mouth is by my ear again and he whispers those last words directly into it, sending shivers coursing through my taunt body. His lips move across my face and find mine. They press down firmly before vanishing along with their owner and I am left, frozen and furious in the small alcove behind a portrait.

Once I recover enough to breathe properly, anger floods through my blood, my eyes widen in horror and glaze over with a red mist. My fist comes into contact with the cold, stone wall again… and again… and again… When I lack the energy to swing anymore, I press my flaming forehead to the wall and let the cool, dampness drain into my body, soothing me.

“What’s up with you?” Max asks, nudging me with his foot. Frustration has me in its iron grip and I shoot him the famous Weasley glare before getting up and leaving the compartment. I cannot deal with him right now.

It was just so humiliating… My fist crashes down on the thin walls of the train corridor. Rose just had to walk in… It’s all Malfoy’s fault: it’s always Malfoy’s fault. I had gone to find a compartment ahead of the others because I needed a little time to think, Malfoy’s kisses from yesterday were still burning on my lips and in my mind and the feel of his body presses so repulsively against mine still lingered – the ghost of his embrace. Finding and empty compartment, I turned in, only to find it was not empty at all, simply filled with the overlarge ego that is Scorpius Malfoy. He had seemed just as shocked as I was to find ourselves alone once again - immediately standing up but neither of us spoke. Somehow, our compartment door had slid shut so no one disturbed us. I do not know how long we stood like that…

“Oi, look where you’re going-” someone starts as I bash into them, absently looking for somewhere quiet to sit. They take one look at the expression on my face and mumble an apology before hurrying away again. At last, I find a compartment with a couple of nerdy Fourth Year Ravenclaw boys, sitting and reading – perfect. Neither of them look up as I slide open the compartment door and take a seat at the window.

Where was I…? Yeah, so we had just stood there, staring at each other for what must have been at least five minutes, probably more. Eventually he had spoken – “Hello Roxanne,” was all he said. It was then that all my pent up frustration and anger had boiled over, I had begun explaining to him what a vile, abhorrent, repulsive, egotistic, arrogant toe-rag he was when he had closed the gap between us and had had the audacity to plant his slimy Slytherin lips on mine once again. Obviously, I had not taken kindly to this and had planted an equally passionate punch in his stomach, causing him to bend over double. My plan had back fired slightly when this caused him to grab onto my arm to steady himself. His fingers had seared my skin and he must have noticed me flinch at his touch because he then seemed to take great joy in not letting go. I had pulled my arm back in an attempt to rid myself of his grip but the action only served to drag him closer to me again, giving him the entirely incorrect impression that he could kiss me again.

If Rose had walked in then…

But she hadn’t – thank Merlin – and I managed to pull away from Malfoy and inform him that he was a slimy shit-ball (okay, maybe not the most creative insult, but I was really mad) and it was just after that – before he could retort – that Rose had walked in. Malfoy had immediately let go of my arm and had nodded at Rose before vanishing down the corridor, not doubt to join his filthy Slytherin friends. Rose had then dragged me back to her compartment and I had had to listen to my friends’ pointless drivel about boys asses before Max and Oli came in, making the compartment way too crowded for my liking, so I left.

The door to the compartment sides open and I look up. Malfoy is stood there but before I can draw breath to insult him, he holds up his hands, as if in surrender. In his right hand, there is a folded piece of parchment. He holds this out to me without a word. After a few moments hesitation, I take it, my fingers brushing gently against his as our eyes momentarily interlock.

He vanishes.

The station mist clears slightly as the remaining families disappear through the barrier. Looking around, I realise I am the only student left. Great. Dragging my trunk over to the fireplaces with the uncomfortable prospect of flooing home with a heavy trunk, I shove the piece of parchment Malfoy gave me into my pocket.

Suddenly, the entire station goes utterly black. Panicking, I think someone has switched of the lights before I remember that there are no lights on this platform – just a large, domed, glass roof… Meaning that either the world is ending and daylight has vanished… or that someone is being a twat.

“Fred…?” I call into the compete darkness, trying my best to sound irritated rather than reveal that I’m actually a little scared. “Stop being a dick.”

“Dammit,” I hear, followed by a crashing sound and some more colourful curses.

“For fuck’s sake,” I sigh.

“How’d you know it was me?” the blackness asks.

“Well, who else was it going to be?”

“Uh… a Death Eater?” he asks uncertainty.

“Whatever Fred, can you make it go away?”

Silence.

“Fred…?”

More silence.

“Fred…? You know how to make it go away… Don’t you?”

“Well…” Great. My idiotic brother decided to submerge the entire Platform in darkness without thinking about how to reverse the effect.

“Have you tired Lumos?” I suggest. I hear him muttering under his breath but no light appears.

“Brilliant…” I can hear the grin in his voice.

“What exactly is brilliant, Fred? We’re stuck on a dark Platform because of you.”

“I’ll explain later, where are you?”

“Over here… in the dark,” I say sarcastically. He stumbles in the general direction of my voice before giving up. “Guess we’re just going to have to wait until it goes away.”

“Uh, Roxie…” he starts hesitantly. “That may take a while.”

“How long is a while, Fred?” I ask as a sense of foreboding overcomes me.

“Uh… Days? Weeks maybe?”

“What?” Oh great. “Right… Fred, I want you to find the wall,” he starts to protest but I cut him off. “If we both find the wall, then we can move towards each other and find the bloody exit!” he reluctantly agrees and a few moments later I hear him trip over something. “Fucking hell Fred – just put one foot in front of the other in the general direction of the wall!”

At long last, after dragging my trunk and almost tripping over a few times myself, I make it to the wall – I never thought I’d be quite so relieved to feel the cold stones beneath my fingertips. Moving alongside the wall, I find Fred and we both hesitantly follow the wall to where the barrier should be.

Bursting through into the bustle of King’s Cross, I turn angrily to face the stupid hulk of flesh that is my brother. “What the hell where you thinking?” I hiss. He has a look of delight and awe on his face that makes him look like a Third Year in Honeydukes. Shrugging, he grabs my arm and we apparate back to his flat.

“Explain.” I demand after disposing of my trunk in his spare room.

“Explain what?” he asks timidly. I raise an eyebrow. “Okay, okay… I was just experimenting with Dad’s Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder and I changed the ratios and added some different ingredients to see what would happen… I was just testing it out… I thought it would be a nice way to greet you, rather than the soppy greetings everyone else gets.”